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Speaking in Tongues

Two
couples contemplate infidelity. One follows through, the other does not. Each
choice creates ripples outward, like a stone dropping in a pond. Lives overlap
and intertwine. A lost love reappears. A pair of shoes abandoned on the beach.
A woman vanishes without a trace. Contracts broken between lovers and powerful
bonds forged between strangers. What happens when intimacy breaks down? When do
we recognize the danger of our inaction? How far will we go to feel something? Find out this week when DMV Theatre presents Speaking in Tongues at Neptune
Theatre’s Scotiabank Stage in Halifax. Recently we spoke with director Matthew
Thomas Walker about what audiences can expect.

What are your own roots?

I’m Halifax born and
raised, as was my Mother. My father grew up on the South Shore in a
small town called Milton.

How long have you been involved in theater,
and in what capacity?
I got hooked into theatre during my undergrad at Dal by an Intro to Acting
class co-taught by Sue Leblanc and Jennifer Overton. Their unique perspectives
and approaches completely shifted my perception of what theater is. I’d been
enrolled in Engineering and hadn’t realized how much I needed art in my life.
Soon I was switching my major and auditioning for the Acting program, which I
graduated from in 2005. After gigging as an actor and producing
independent work with the DMV team for a few years I moved to Toronto to
complete my MFA at York. In Toronto, I formed another independent
theatre company with a few fellow grads called Litmus Theatre. We adapt classic
works for site-specific venues in Toronto. Litmus has allowed me to begin
testing my hand at directing and creating new work, which has become the focus
of my career in recent years.

How did you get involved with this particular
production?

Since helping to found
the company in 2006, I had often been involved as an actor in the shows that
Pamela Halstead would direct. Since I started getting some directing
experience under my belt, Pam and I had frequently discussed the possibility of
swapping spots. With some last-minute cast shuffling on this
project, she gave me a call and we decided that this was the one!

What are the challenges involved?

The show is full of
great challenges for the entire team, most of which stem from the fact that the
playwright shifts the world of the play at the intermission: the
four actors take on new characters, broadening the play’s scope; the
storytelling shifts styles, requiring the designers and myself to change the
game. The narrative begins to jump around in time giving us
seemingly disjointed pieces of the puzzle, until the larger picture begins to
emerge in the final scenes. It’s like no other piece I’ve worked on as an actor
or director. It has stretched the whole team in new directions.

What are the rewards?

The reward is that as
artists we love taking on these challenges. We want the opportunity to work on
a piece that stretches both our skills and our humanity. Speaking in
Tongues does this. Aside from the technical demands, the writing
also asks big questions of us as humans. It has always been my
favourite part about being a theatre artist. We get to gather in the same room
with smart, big-hearted people and talk about the hard stuff.

What can audiences expect during the run?

They can expect delight,
mystery, and a narrative structure that is anything but conventional. A
story that begins with clever mirroring of two couples as they contemplate infidelity.
Then, just when you feel a simple moral may reveal itself, the story will crack
open on you adding greater complexity to the discussion. As the
playwright puts it, “that’s life”. Bring your brains and hearts with
you.

What are your thoughts on the state
of theater in Halifax & Atlantic Canada?
There’s no shortage of talent and ingenuity out here. What I believe is a
positive trend is that there seems to be (some) more attention from the mid and
large level companies towards the risk-taking happening in the indie community.
I’ve noticed that a few of these companies are offering their greater platforms
to showcase independent shows that have struck a chord at the Bus Stop Theatre,
the Fringe Festival or other indie spaces. I believe that building
these channels between the indie and the established theatres can be mutually
beneficial for all.

What's next on your creative agenda?

I’m entering into
development with my other company, Litmus, on a new project based on JM
Barrie’s Peter Pan stories. It’s being adapted by playwright Jordi
Mand and focuses on Wendy’s life years later when she has a daughter of her
own. I’m also really excited to be directing the graduating class at Dal in the
fall. We’ll be staging Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando for the first show of
their season. It’s a beautiful script, and will be really great to
work on with the students.